Derbyshire retain confidence in their ability to return to Division One of the County Championship at the first attempt but not that their future remains at their traditional home.

After their one-season stay ended at noon on the penultimate day of the campaign the Derbyshire chairman, Chris Grant, revealed that contingency plans to leave the County Ground, where first-class cricket has been played since 1871, have been drawn up to make them a sustainable top-flight club in the long term.

"We are looking to give it a good hard crack to get back but the David v Goliath scenario in terms of revenues, and the amounts we can spend on players, will not disappear overnight and that is one of the key reasons why ground development, whether it be here or elsewhere, is instrumental in levelling the playing field," Grant said.

Derbyshire feel hamstrung by not owning their own ground and believe that having access to grants via council backing would help generate larger revenue streams. Their business plan was publicly commended by the England and Wales Cricket Board last year but the club are striving for greater financial flexibility.

Even after increasing it by a third for 2013 Derbyshire's player budget of £1m equated to approximately 55% of the ECB's salary cap. Meanwhile £500,000 annual maintenance is spent on a ground leased by Derby City Council.

Initial discussions with DCC took place a fortnight ago and are set to resume. With rival councils in the county – South Derbyshire and Chesterfield – interested in relocating the club, a £1.7m ground development grant from the ECB remains in the bank.

"We can only spend that once, so we have got to be absolutely certain that we are spending it in the right place, developing this facility," said Grant. "If you rented a house, would you put a conservatory on it? The answer is probably not.

"Derby City Council have just spent £27.5m on a velodrome on Pride Park. They have earmarked another £20m for an Olympic-sized swimming pool and the county cricket club have received nothing in the way of support or commitment. Ideally we would like to stay here but that largely depends on the support that the city council come back with."

Grant says his words are not an idle threat. "The chief executive of South Derbyshire District Council, Frank McArdle, was instrumental in bringing Toyota, the largest car manufacturing facility in the UK, to South Derbyshire and he has also been instrumental in creating St George's Park, the FA's Centre of Excellence. I don't deal in brinkmanship," he added.

On the field Derbyshire's end-of-season batting malaise extended into their final match against Warwickshire. A 55-minute spell without losing a wicket suggested sterner resistance on the third morning than they had shown on day two, yet the loss of Shivnarine Chanderpaul catalysed their demise.

Their first innings and First Division stint concluded at noon when Tony Palladino was forced to retire hurt after being struck on the glove by a Boyd Rankin bouncer. Requiring a score in excess of 400 to preserve their survival prospects they had mustered 103. Second time around they lasted fewer than 30 overs.

They simply had no answer to Warwickshire's juggernaut attack. The left-armer Keith Barker completed a five-wicket haul in the first innings and then passed the baton to the international trio Chris Woakes, Rankin and Jeetan Patel, their leading wicket-taker who wrapped things up with wickets in consecutive overs, in the second.

Stuart Poynter, Warwickshire's fourth wicketkeeper in as many Championship matches, claimed half-a-dozen dismissals. Recommended by his Ireland team-mate William Porterfield, the 22-year-old was cleared to play by Durham, to whom he will be contracted in 2014.

"He kept absolutely magnificently on a challenging wicket, took the ball really well and made things look easy. Credit to Durham for spotting that and getting him wrapped up in their environment," said Warwickshire's director of cricket, Dougie Brown, who also confirmed a permanent deal has been offered to the Essex loanee Maurice Chambers.